ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND EVOLUTION OF STUDENTS’ SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL CHARACTER IN UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

I have personal experience of failing in products business but succeeding service business. I have observed some friends fail in some businesses while others succeed in similar business ventures. I have read about some successful global businesses like the Google, Facebook, Amazon and so forth, but The Economist (2014 p.3) gives a fascinating-sad story of ‘Kongo Gum i, a Japanese construction business founded in 578 but failed in 2006’. I find it is surprising to imagine how a business can fail after 1428 years of existence! It is sad that Kongo Gum i construction firm could not keep pace with the tough fast-changing entrepreneurial construction terrain in the modern Japan. Entrepreneurship is therefore an intriguing subject that demands thorough understanding, if business ventures are to flourish in time and space.
Are institutions of higher education in Kenya equipping students with the necessary business agility to face the fast-changing business environment in the globe? The fact that there are so many business ventures failing before the dawn of their fourth year in the market (Par do & Alfonso, 2017), indicates that there is discord between what the business environment demands and, the students’ abilities to positively drive business ventures. What more could mold students’ entrepreneurial character to flourish in business ventures than the entrepreneurial education provided at the university level?

我曾亲身经历产品业务受挫、服务业务成功的经营历程。我亦观察到多位友人在商业项目中折戟，另有不少同行在同类创业实践中斩获成功。我也曾了解过谷歌（Google）、脸书（Facebook）、亚马逊（Amazon）等全球成功企业的案例，但《经济学人》（The Economist，2014年第3页）讲述了一则令人唏嘘的故事：日本建筑企业金刚组（Kongo Gumi）始建于公元578年，却于2006年宣告破产。一家存续1428年的企业最终走向失败，着实令人意外。令人惋惜的是，金刚组未能跟上现代日本严苛且瞬息万变的建筑创业市场格局。因此，若要让商业创业项目在时空维度中蓬勃发展，创业学便是一门需要深入钻研的引人入胜的学科。

肯尼亚的高等教育机构是否在为学生赋能，使其具备应对全球瞬息万变的商业环境所需的商业敏捷性？帕尔多与阿方索（Pardo & Alfonso, 2017）的研究指出，大量创业企业在入市未满四年便宣告失败，这表明商业环境的实际需求与学生推动创业项目正向发展的能力之间存在错位。若要塑造学生的创业特质，使其在商业创业中崭露头角，还有什么比大学阶段的创业教育更为有效呢？